Recently, in order to improve the efficiency of marine transportation using containers, large vessels have been used in order to improve the cost effectiveness by increasing the cargo amount. In this connection, there is demand for the development of a new system which is capable of loading and unloading cargo on the sea remote from the land, without berthing such large vessels at a quay wall of a harbor which is provided on the land. Thus, research into a mobile harbor allowing a large ship to anchor in the sea away from the land and to handle cargos, rather than making a large ship to come alongside the pier in the harbor, has been under way.
FIGS. 1A and 1B are schematic diagrams illustrating the mobile harbor in accordance with the related research. The mobile harbor 100 which is a floating body may perform a loading and unloading operation by using a crane 20. FIG. 1A illustrates a loading and unloading operation between the mobile harbor 10 and a large container carrier 30, and FIG. 1B illustrates a loading and unloading operation between the mobile harbor 10 and a quay wall 40.
When a mobile harbor is used to load and unload cargos while a large container carrier is anchored in the sea remote from the land, containers loaded and/or to be loaded on the large container carrier need to be distributed to several small, mobile harbors and transported between the large container carrier and a harbor provided on the land. In this case, the number of berthing operations of the mobile harbors inevitably increases.
In general, a vessel includes a windlass for winding an anchor cable or a mooring winch for winding a mooring rope, in order to moor the vessel in a harbor, and the harbor includes a mooring facility for fixing the mooring rope of the vessel. The conventional vessel or harbor is operated by a manual system depending on human power. Such a manual system has a problem in safety accidents and operation efficiency.
Therefore, there is a need for the development of a new system for quickly and stably mooring or docking a vessel such as a mobile harbor or container carrier.